Ormonde Winter

Ormonde Winter (January 1875-13 February 1962) was a British Army Brigadier-General during World War I, the Irish War of Independence, and the Winter War. He commanded the British intelligence forces at Dublin Castle during the war against the IRA, and he later became a fascist and fought for Finland against the Soviets.

Biography
Ormonde Winter was born in Winchester, Hampshire, England in 1875, and he joined the Royal Artillery of the British Army, serving with the 67th Battery at Peshawar in British India and with the 131st Battery in Kildare, Ireland before World War I broke out. In 1903, he killed an Irish youth with an oar when the boy attacked him with a wooden club, and he was then acquitted of manslaughter. He went on to serve at the Battle of Gallipoli in 1916 and at the Battle of Messines Ridge in 1917, and, during the Irish War of Independence, he accepted a pay cut to become Chief of Intelligence at Dublin Castle. He led the "Cairo Gang" in hunting down IRA members, and, in early 1921, he claimed that the IRA was near defeat, as it was critically short of ammunition, 4,500 of its members were interned, and Michael Collins claimed that it was "dead beat" and within six weeks of defeat. However, the British government negotiated a peace treaty which resulted in Irish independence. Winter retired from the Army in 1924 and joined the directorship of the burgeoning British Fascists, which held massive rallies in London. He was later involved with plots to overthrow the Spanish government in Morocco and stage an anti-Czech revolution in Slovakia, and, at the age of 65, he offered his services to Finland during the "Winter War" with the Soviet Union. He was honored for his service, and he died in 1962 at the age of 87.